The cultural heritage elephant
Hans Scherfig’s art is about pictorial joy, colours, stories and imagination. As a writer, he was gifted and eloquent. With the brush, he was gentle and loving. Hans Scherfig’s colourful jungle paintings of rhinos, tapirs and flamingos and his satirical novels such as “Det forsømte forår” (The Stolen Spring) and “Den forsvundne fuldmægtig” (The Missing Clerk) are today a well-known part of Danish cultural heritage. And unlike his sharp pen, in his paintings and drawings, he created a whole catalogue of utopian images of a dream world brimming with love and colourful, glowing beauty.
Scherfig’s Début and Main Works
Scherfig made his début as a painter with four cubist paintings at the Artists’ Autumn Exhibition in 1928. He is best known for his lithographs and colourful primeval forest paintings in which he depicts the animals in an idyllic way that has been described as naïve by some. The painter and writer Hans Scherfig himself never saw the jungle or the savannah, but throughout his life, he dreamed of elephants, giraffes, rhinoceroses and monkeys in their natural surroundings. Artistically, he expressed himself through paintings, drawings and graphics, creating book illustrations, wall paintings, collages, advertising drawings and decoration commissions. There was a thinking and a mission behind every stroke: creatures in far distant landscapes, peasant dances in Kyrgyzstan, police brutality in Harlem and simple everyday experiences are all part of his work. The otherwise self-taught artist also engaged in cubist surface painting, linear expressionism or naïve style. His many major works include “Evas skabelse” (The Creation of Eve) (1929, the National Gallery of Denmark); “I Luxembourg Haven” (In the Luxembourg Gardens) (1931, Nordjyll. Kunstmus.); ”Urskovsbillede med næsehorn”; (Primeval Forest With Rhinoceros) (1940, same place); “Elefantkirkegård” (Elephant Cemetery) (1941, Danish Parliament); “Urskov” (Primeval Forest) (1946, Ribe Kunstmuseum); “Skaberaktapirer” (Malayan Tapirs) (1965, Bispebjerg Hospital), “Mor med tvillinger” (Mother With Twins) (gable painting, 1962, Kapelvej 27, Copenhagen) and not least “Rejse i Junglen” (Journey in the Jungle) from 1949.
Scherfig’s Artistic Indignation and Anti-Americanism
Aged just 24, the young Scherfig made the trip across the Atlantic, and his stay in New York extended from November 1929 to June 1930. The reason for the trip was love – to meet Elisabeth Karlinsky again, an Austrian artist who later became his life partner. In New York, he experienced the Great Depression after the Wall Street Crash with the high level of unemployment it brought, and he saw the poverty and life’s contrasts first hand. Through a long series of letters to his father, C.D. Scherfig, and more than 250 paintings, drawings and woodcuts, he describes his experiences of the America that he would later come to despise. His favourite motifs included the city’s modern architecture, traffic and swarms of people, aggressive police officers, overweight capitalists and the uniform man of the masses with his characteristic toothpaste smile. There is no doubt that the experiences Scherfig had and the lessons he learned as a youngster in New York during the Great Depression were a turning point for him – both artistically and ideologically. On his return home, he became a member of the Communist Party of Denmark (DKP). But Scherfig’s wanderlust did not stop there, and his later travels took him to the Soviet Union (1950), Romania (1952) and the North Cape (1978), among other countries. As a painter and visual artist, Hans Scherfig was a member of the Corner group, which over years included painters such as Else Alfelt, Ejler Bille, Victor Brockdorff, Egill Jacobsen, Richard Mortensen, Carl-Henning Pedersen and Elisabeth Karlinsky.
Exhibitions With Hans Scherfig
Tjørnelunds Kunsthdl., Cph. 1929; Civic Club, N.Y. 1930; Ramme-Larsen, Cph. 1935; Foren. Nutidskunst, 1936 (together with Egon Mathiesen, Sigurjón lafson and Otto Pedersen); Corner, and Høstudst. 1939–41; Corner 1942–44, 1946–50, 1953–56, 1958–59, 1961–67, 1970–72, 1974–76, 1978–80, 1981 (memorial exhibition), 1988–89; Da. Kunststævne, Fyns Forum 1936, 1940; Vild Hvede 1941, 1948; Nordisk Konstutställning., Göteborg 1943; Arnbaks Kunsthandel, Cph. 1944 (together with Elisabeth Karlinsky); Dansk Kunstudstilling, Oslo 1946; Unionen, Fredericia 1947, Oslo 1967; Den fynske Forårsudstilling 1949 and 1970; Dansk Nutidskunst, Charlottenborg 1956; Østersøbiennalen, Rostock 1967; Charlottenborg Efterårsudstilling 1971; Kunstnerforbindelser, Oslo 1973 (together with Nina Sundbye and Arne Johnson); Kunsten i hverdagen, Kunsten Museum of Modern Art, Aalborg, 1975; Dansk kunst, Kunstforeningen, Copenhagen 1976; Dansk kunst under besættelsen, Hjørring Kunstmuseum 1985. Kunsten Museum of Modern Art, Aalborg 1981; Dansk kunst under besættelsen, Hjørring Kunstmuseum 1985.; Kunstforeningen, Copenhagen 1985; Glyptoteket 1995; Nivaagaards Malerisamling 2020.
Some of Scherfig’s Nominations, Grants and Awards
1952 – Jeanne and Henri Nathansen’s Birthday Grant
1954 – The Holger Drachmann Grant
1963 – The Adam Oehlenschläger Grant
1965 – Jeanne and Henri Nathansen’s Memorial Grant
1973 – The Grand Prize of the Danish Academy
Works by Hans Scherfig for Sale at Bruun Rasmussen
At Bruun Rasmussen, we have works for sale that arouse interest and are relevant to buyers and collectors. Here, you can keep an eye on the works by Hans Scherfig that you can bid on right now.
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